In less than a week, three Chinese bishops were ordained with the approval of both Pope Francis and the Chinese government.
The ordination Mass for Bishop Peter Wu Yishun, 59, was celebrated on 31st January after Pope Francis named him head of the Apostolic Prefecture of Shaowu in the Chinese province of Fujian on 16th December “within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China,” the Vatican announced on 31st January.
The apostolic prefecture had been without a bishop since 1964.
The Vatican said Father Anthony Sun Wenjun, 53, was ordained to the episcopacy on 29th January in Weifang, about 320 miles south of Beijing, and Bishop Thaddeus Wang Yuesheng was ordained the bishop of Zhengzhou on 25th January, also in accordance with the accordance with the Vatican-China agreement, which was originally signed in 2018 and has been renewed every two years since.
The text of the agreement has not been published, but Vatican officials have said it outlines procedures for ensuring Catholic bishops are elected by the Catholic community in China and approved by the pope before their ordinations and installations.
Announcing Bishop Wu Yishun’s appointment and ordination, the Vatican provided few biographical details other than his date of birth, 7th December 1964, and the date of his ordination, which was 15th August 1992. It said he was ordained for the Diocese of Xiamen and then sent to the Minbei region of the Fujian province where he was pastor of the Nanping parish and responsible for both the Apostolic Prefecture of Shaowu and the Apostolic Prefecture of Jian’ou, which has not had a bishop since 1953.
Two days earlier, announcing Bishop Sun Wenjun’s ordination, the Vatican said the pope had erected the Diocese of Weifang on 20th April, designating the Church of Christ the King in the Qingzhou district of the city to be the new cathedral.
Establishing the Diocese of Weifang, the Vatican said, the pope suppressed the former Apostolic Prefecture of Yiduxian. The last bishop of the prefecture, who was recognised by the government but not by the pope, died in 2008.
Bishop Sun Wenjun attended the Sheshan Seminary in Shanghai from 1989 to 1994 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1995 in Beijing, the Vatican said. Without providing a full list of his assignments, the Vatican said he carried out pastoral ministry in Shandong from 2005 to 2007 and from 2007 to 2008 he “continued his formation” in Ireland. Returning to China, he has been ministering in Weifang.
Bishop Wang Yuesheng was born in Zhumadian in Henan province on 27th February 1966, and was ordained in Hankou in 1993. He served as parish priest in Zhengzhou and parish priest in the district of Huji, according to the Vatican.
His ordination was the first agreed on by both the Vatican and the Chinese government since 2022.
Two bishops from mainland China, recommended by their peers in consultation with the Chinese government, were appointed by Pope Francis as members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which met in October, although they stayed only for the first two weeks of the meeting.
Picture: Pope Francis waves as people behind him raise a Chinese flag before the pope’s Mass in Steppe Arena in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 3rd September 2023. At the end of the Mass, the pope sent greetings to China and to Chinese Catholics. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)